Environmental health groups analyzing government air quality data have concluded ozone smog from domestic oil and gas production is causing hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks in children under 18 – with Colorado and metro Denver among places hardest hit.

A Clean Air Task Force study unveiled Wednesday found there are more than 750,000 summertime asthma attacks in kids nationwide linked to ozone smog from oil and gas pollution. The study calculated 32,477 asthma attacks every summer afflicting kids in Colorado, which ranked third behind Texas and Oklahoma, and 20,466 cases in the Denver-Aurora area, which ranked fifth behind Dallas, New York, Washington D.C. and Houston.

The task force is a non-profit public health and environment advocacy group based in Boston. Its scientists worked with Colorado State University scientists, and used EPA and U.S. Census Bureau data, modeling emissions, air quality and health impacts. They teamed with Earthworks, a Washington D.C. environmental group, in producing the 24-page “Gasping for Breath” analysis.

These advocacy groups favor stronger federal standards to project people from oil and gas industry methane and other air pollution.

State government regulations in Colorado for oil and gas companies include rules aimed at ensuring companies control methane and volatile organic compound emissions.

Oil and gas industry groups on Wednesday rejected the study, disputing its findings and denouncing the environmental health groups as untrustworthy activists.

Metro Denver and Fort Collins rank high among U.S. cities in ozone pollution, for which Front Range air has fallen out of compliance with federal health standards. Air quality experts have blamed population growth, the oil and gas industry, vehicle pollution and coal-fired power plants for the elevated ozone.

“This groundbreaking analysis shows that, even if you live nowhere near oil and gas facilities, oil and gas air pollution can threaten your health in Denver, in Colorado, and across the United States,” Earthworks spokesman Alan Septoff said.

“To reduce this threat, the state of Colorado must provide the staff and resources to enforce its precedent-setting rules intended to cut oil and gas air pollution from existing operations, including methane, VOCs and air toxics like benzene and formaldehyde,” Septoff said. “And the Environmental Protection Agency should do the same nationwide.”

The report estimates health effects that can be attributed to ozone linked to air pollution from oil and gas facilities. A team of researchers including CSU scientist Tammy Thompson relied on pollution measurements from the EPA’s national emissions inventory, which compiles data from state, local and tribal agencies.

The researchers first ran data on ozone pollution from all industries through a widely used computer model to project the health consequences, such as asthma attacks and lost school days. Then they ran the data using the same model minus the emissions from oil and gas facilities, said Lesley Fleischman, lead author of the report.

They worked out the difference to determine the air quality and health impact linked to air pollution from oil and gas facilities, Fleischman said.

Colorado Oil and Gas Association spokesman Doug Flanders said industry emissions are improving in the state. He attacked Earthworks as a “keep-it-in-the-ground activist group” that cannot be trusted.

Center for Regulatory Solutions director Matt Dempsey called the analysis “alarmist” and said environmental health advocates’ report was not “peer-reviewed” by independent scientists and shouldn’t be taken seriously.

“The information in this report is misleading and wrong,” Dempsey said.

Clean Air Task Force advocacy director Conrad Schneider replied saying the analysis “used the most up-to-date official government inventories available” and said researchers “gave industry credit for implementing all applicable state and federal regulations.”

The researchers over a year relied on standard methods that Colorado regulators use when presenting plans to try to meet ozone standards to EPA officials, Schneider said. “And we fully expect that the CSU researcher that performed the analysis will publish the results in a peer-reviewed journal.”

Asthma is a chronic lung disease in which airways are narrowed and inflamed, leading to wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath and coughing. Nearly 23 million Americans have asthma, including an estimated 6.1 million kids. Asthma disproportionately affects children and lower-income families.

Bruce Finley covers environment issues, the land air and water struggles shaping Colorado and the West. Finley grew up in Colorado, graduated from Stanford, then earned masters degrees in international relations as a Fulbright scholar in Britain and in journalism at Northwestern. He is also a lawyer and previously handled international news with on-site reporting in 40 countries.

Democrats Ed Perlmutter and Jared Polis have joined their Republican congressional colleagues in backing legislation that would allow the Bureau of Land Management to relocate it headquarters to the West, and possibly to Colorado.